A Journey Through Shadows
by zephyr51
Summary: Inspired by animatedrose's Quest to Capture the shadow pokemon. Cipher, an infamous group of criminals, has rose to power once more and this time they're worse than ever. Join Alphonse and the many friends he'll meant along the way in their quest to thwart Cipher and purify the Shadow Pokemon. Will they succeed? Just wait and see.
1. Of Shadows and Pokemon

Of Shadows and Pokemon

Wiping stray strands of teal colored hair away from his eyes, Alphonse Engel, a boy who appeared to be no older than sixteen years of age, smirked in the face of his challenger. Slowly the dual spotlights on their battle focused in on the Riolu in front of him and his pale face. Catching a sliver of the pale light, his gray eyes seemed to shimmer with determination as his hands, which he wore black fingerless gloves over, rested in the pockets of his black jeans which were custom dyed to fade to red below the knee. This pokemon battle was almost over and that fear could be seen in the eyes of his opponent and his opponent's Bisharp. Smoothing out the wrinkles of his red shirt with sleeves that stopped at his wrist which was covered by a black vest as he waited for his opponent's next move, the eyes of the youth with a skinny build were glued to the scoreboard. It was a typical three on three battle and he had all three of his pokemon while his opponent was down to his last pokemon.

"B-Bisharp, use Metal Claw!"

Alphonse could hear the panic and worry behind the older man's voice and he knew then for sure that this battle was in the bag. Using a form of communication with his Riolu so that the Fighting Type wouldn't telegraph all of it's attack pattern, Roen gave a barely audible snap of his fingers once and then twice in quick succession. Each snap of his fingers related to a move which his Riolu knew with one and two snaps being Swords Dance and Force Palm. Leaping into action with a grace that could only belong to a female fighting pokemon, Riolu was literally dancing between the Bisharp's swift movements as she waited for the perfect moment to exploit a weakness in the enemy's guard. Spotting that precise opening, the female Riolu's right paw drew backwards as it glowed white before she slammed it into the Bisharp's chest right as it's arms were lifted to strike his Riolu in the head. Flying backwards from the sheer force of that Force Palm, the Bisharp skidded across the rocky field until it's back slammed into a large rock mound. Seconds passed into minutes as the Bisharp laid there unconscious before the referee made his decision.

"Bisharp is unable to battle, Riolu wins. The victory goes to Alponse Engel of Castelia City."

Hopping around her trainer's legs, Riolu performed her own little victory dance. It was cute and all but too bad his victory didn't matter much. The battle tournament they had just competed in was an unofficial one located in Johto so while it was nice to win it didn't actually help his standings to compete in the Indigo League in the long run. Then again he only joined the tournament in the first place because it seemed like it was fun. _We should get going soon. __I want to reach Shamouti Island before nightfall if at all possible._

"Come on, Aura. We don't want to be late." Alphonse stated urgently as he scooped the Fighting Type up in his arms so he wouldn't have to worry about her falling behind.

By the time the duo of trainer and pokemon had left the lobby in Goldenrod City it was already getting dark out and the smell of rain lingered in the air. There was no way that they were going to get to Shamouti Island by nightfall it seemed. _I really wanted to see the Legendary Birds too. _Unfortunately there wasn't much that he was even able to do about that because it was honestly too dark to see in order to fly so he decided to stop at the pokemon center for the night. Besides the fact that he was too tired to fly, the Pokemon Center also had the advantage of it's facilities being free to use by traveling trainers. It was a great thing when one tires of camping out in the dirt.

Too bad he never even got to the doors when a girl in orange with a Dratini rushed by with a man in black hot on her heels. Not one to waste time, Alphonse took off after the man and the woman with the assumption that the woman and her Dratini were in trouble. Rounding the corner of the Pokemon Center and bounding into a dark alleyway. Nothing good could happen in a dark alleyway and he was right when the man sent out a Lucario and demanded the woman give up the Dratini or else. Unable to watch the scene before him any longer without interfering for the woman's sake, Alphonse snapped his fingers four times before snapping them three times. Rushing forwards at high speeds, Aura gave her best glass shattering screech to the Lucario before coming in with Sky Uppercut. Taking this distraction as a good chance to escape, the woman whispered her gratitude as she ran past with her Dratini.

"What the!?" The man dressed entirely in black except for his cap which had a large red C on it exclaimed in a furious manner, "You little punk! Looks like I'm going to have to settle for stealing your Riolu."

"What? No, there's no way you're taking Aura from me!" Alphonse refused vehemently, now clutching his best friend and partner close to his chest.

"Fine, seems like I'll have to do this the hard way. Lucario, use Shadow Combat!" The man roared to his Lucario, who under close inspection had only been distracted by Aura's Sky Uppercut.

_Shadow Combat? That's not a real move. _Unfortunately the blue haired teen didn't have much time to ponder that much as the Lucario charged with it's hands and feet enveloped in some sort of malevolent black aura. Thinking on his feet, Alphonse silently gave the command for Swords Dance and Force Palm in hopes that his Riolu was fast enough to dodge. As it turns out Alphonse had completely miscalculated the strange Lucario's speed and the Riolu and trainer were berated with a flurry of punches and kicks too fast for his eyes to track. If it wasn't hard to tell at that point, Alphonse was sent flying backwards with Aura still in his arms.

"Did ya like that? This baby is what we in Cipher like to call a Shadow Pokemon." The man who had revealed himself to be an agent of Cipher cackled in some perverse sense of amusement.

"S-Shadow P-Pokemon...?" Alphonse barely managed to ask as a thin trickle of blood ran down the side of his mouth.

"Just the name sends chills of excitement down my spine. In order to increase their battle potential we at Cipher close a Pokemon's heart to make them a Shadow Pokemon. We steal these pokemon from their original trainers and by the time the process is complete the pokemon has lost all emotions and only remembers that it's made for battle." The Cipher agent declared with a sick form of pride in his voice.

"T-That's... horrible... P-Pokemon aren't... t-tools... of w-war." Alphonse barely managed to stammer as his vision flickered in and out due to the force of that Shadow Combat.

"A brat like you wouldn't understand. Finish him Lucario!" The man barked as his pulled out an object which looked vaguely like a pistol pointed at him but the thing was so blurry that the teen wasn't able to make heads or tails of it.

Sensing his imminent demise, Alphonse squeezed his eyes shut as he prepared for the worst when a roar broke the silence. Blinking in confusion at what he just heard, Roen as a high pressure spray of water slammed into his attackers. Standing up shakily, the blue haired youth caught sight of blue canine shaped blur which looked like Suicune for some reason. He wasn't sure whether he was in fact seeing things or what but he noticed that whatever had saved him dropped a pair of glasses with purple lenses and blue frames. Maybe it was the Close Combat messing with his head but the instance his eyes caught sight of them he felt drawn to them. Were they meant to be his? Without really thinking about his actions, Alphonse slipped on the glasses and boy did he notice the effect. His field of vision immediately cleared and he felt reinvigorated as if he were a pokemon and someone had just used a hyper potion on him right when the Cipher agent took out some strange device and vanished into thin air.

"He left his pokemon behind." Alphonse muttered as Aura bounced onto his right shoulder with loads of energy. At that moment the youth noticed that the Lucario, which had appeared to be a regular Lucario before he had slipped on his new glasses, suddenly gave off a malicious aura. Any traces of black on the lucario became red, any traces of blue became grey, and it's eyes were glowing golden. _No... Not suddenly. This must be how it always looks._ Overcome with remorse over what must of happened to the poor creature Alphonse tossed an Ultraball at the bipedal pokemon in hopes of helping it. Of course he wasn't expecting the capture to work honestly which was why he was surprised when the Shadow Lucario was sucked into the ball and captured immediately.

_I'm thoroughly confused by all of this but meh I'll see where this takes me._ Picking the ball up from off the ground, the teen couldn't help but notice the fact that the pokeball had turned gray in color and had a giant S where the button on most pokeballs were. Noticing the blue canine pokemon which he instantly recognized as Suicune, Alphonse had to wonder if something was in fact wrong. From what he knew about Suicune Alphonse knew that Suicune usually bounded from lake to lake purifying impurities. It was rare to even encounter in a big city like Goldenrod.

"Get on my back. I have a lot to explain to you and very little time." The majestic water pokemon barked in a forceful yet feminine voice.

"Sure as long as this doesn't turn into some long exposition scene which just feels rushed and bad." complied the youth as he tentatively planted himself upon the legendary's back while placing the Lucario's ball in his pants pocket.

"Just shut up and let me explain." Suicune barked in annoyance as she took off in a high speed run.

If Suicune wasn't in such a rush in her explanation then maybe Alphonse could of enjoyed the thrill of dashing over water. A forceful breeze was constantly in his face making it hard for him to speak so he just listened intently while fingering Lucario's pokeball. She told him about Cipher who was apparently an evil organization dedicated to closing the hearts of pokemon and turning them into battle machines. Apparently Cipher had done this twice before but now they had one of every single pokemon species from Kanto to Unova except for the legendaries. It was sad to listen to honestly. How could someone be so cruel as do that to a pokemon which in turn prevented any kind of growth? Even if Suicune didn't demand it of it, Alphonse decided then and there that he wasn't going to allow Cipher to hurt more innocent pokemon.

"All I have to do is snag them and purify them right?" Alphonse parroted.

"Correct."

"And how do I actually purify them?" Alphonse questioned when he realized that he had no clue how to purify pokemon.

"Ah that... That's up to you to figure out but I'll give you hint. It's right in front of your eyes." Suicune giggled as she threw Roen and Aura off down in the middle of a quaint looking town before bounding off again.

"That's helpful." the boy grumbled as he rubbed his back, "Where are we anyways."

At that the pale skinned teen reached into his pocket and pulled out a Silver device with faded paint. It was his PDA and it literally had almost everything a trainer could need, except for food, and some unnecessary things like the Mail Box and the Shadow Moniter. _Wait what?_ Scrolling back down through the list of apps on the main screen, Alphonse found himself clicking on the Shadow Moniter icon out of curiosity. A maniac grin painted itself upon his face when he realized what it's purpose was and thanked whatever deity decided to give it to him.

"_Why are you so happy, Master?_" Aura, confused about what was so important, questioned.

"Well this thing has everything we need to know about the Shadow Pokemon including their trainers, levels, and attacks so maybe things won't be so bad." Alphonse chimed in for his confused pokemon.

With that said the duo proceeded to find the nearest pokemon shelter for shelter and to plan where to go next. All he actually knew was that he was in Nuvema Town so getting to know the area just a little better was a good idea. _Is what I'm going to do really right though? Wouldn't this be considered stealing pokemon? I guess it's only wrong per say if I actually keep thing once this whole blasted journey is said and done with. _Surprisingly enough it was actually very easy to find the Pokemon Center. He had assumed that it would take forever in all honesty. _I've spent too much time in Goldenrod City._

Alphonse was unsure of what time it was by the time they had rented a room but whatever time it was the teen immediately passed out once his body his the bed. Aura had fallen asleep on his head before they even rented the room so he didn't bother her much. _What in the world have I got myself into this time. Can I even purify Shadow Pokemon?_ Those were the thoughts drifting across his mind before he passed out. Whatever the answers to those questions were, Alphonse was sure to be in for a wild ride.

**Author's Notes**: Okay. If you haven't read the summary first then this was inspired by animatedrose's Quest to Capture the shadow pokemon. If anybody happens to read this by chance then I would appreciate if you would submit Ocs for both the snagger's side and Cipher's. I really just want their name, age, gender, personality, appearance, and their pokemon team. Stuff like History I'll make up on the fly unless you specify. This might of seemed like a minor thing but I edited this bit a little so the journey would take place in Unova.


	2. Start of A New Adventure

Start of a new adventure

Stretching his limbs with a giant yawn, Alphonse blinked his eyes a few times before attempting to just fall back asleep. Before he could even think of drifting off to sleep once more, one of the five pokeballs rattled in place four times before a giant Darmanitan popped out in a flash of bright light. Reacting out of fear of his Darmanitan's typical wake up call, the blue haired teenager bounced out of bed and placed his hands in front of his face. A Fire Punch to the gut was not a good way to start the day in his humble opinion so it was best to placate the giant fire type.

"I'm up!" the teen exclaimed in defense as he threw the black sheets off of his body, "No need for your particular brand of wake up calls, Kai." Happy to dodge that bullet for the morning, Alphonse grabbed Kai's pokeball and called the overgrown Darmanitan back. _I really need to figure out what we're going to do. _It was one thing to start a new journey but it was an entirely different story when that journey was a mission to liberate Shadow Pokemon and stop a giant threat to his home region. _Why was this responsibility trusted __for __me __to complete__ in the first place? __Meh, it doesn't really matter anyways. I just need to figure out what to do with this Lucario._

"Lucario, come on out!" Flicking Lucario's snag ball up in the air with a flick of the wrist, Alphonse called.

"_What'd you do with my trainer?_" The Shadow Lucario snarled telepathically the moment he was called out.

"You're trainer was a criminal who closed you're heart. I'm going to find a way to purify you," Alphonse stated simply with no desire to waste time explaining things.

"_I don't understand, Master,_" The Lucario muttered in an almost robotic way.

"You're heart was closed artificially by an evil organization called Cipher and you were stripped of emotions and memories in the process to become a battle machine. I want to help you return to the way you were," Alphonse tried to explain further but he wasn't sure if he was even getting through to the Shadow Pokemon.

"_I think I understand now. You should probably wake the little one up,_" Lucario stated telepathically in reference to Aura who had curled herself up on the black carpeting.

"Yeah. Aura, we have to leave now," Alphonse whispered gently as he petted her head slowly, "Seriously, we have to get moving." Finally, after what felt like hours of poking and prodding at the heavy sleeper of a pokemon, Aura's eyes blinked open before she bounced off of the floor and onto her trainer's shoulder. With that settled Alphonse searched the simple oak nightstand for the glasses he received the night before. Slipping them on, Alphonse peered out of the double paned glass window to get a rough estimate of what time it actually was.

Occasionally a few amber leaves would get caught up in a sudden breeze and swirl around the window but that wasn't he was looking for. It was nearing Autumn so it was only expected for the leaves to begin to fall which meant the leaves weren't important in his gaze. What his gray eyes which were covered by purple lenses were searching for was the shadows of the trees in the area. By examining the shadows of a tree and more specifically the length and in what direction the shadow was facing he was sure to be able to denote the time. _It's around noon already? Man we really do need to leave._

After spending another hour in the Pokemon Center to get dressed and eat breakfast or lunch depending on whether it was already noon or not, Alphonse was standing outside of the Pokemon Center on a small dirt trail, which branched off in four directions, with Lucario standing at his side and Aura relaxing in her spot on his Shoulder. At first he had debated with himself whether or not it was a good idea for the Shadow Lucario to tag along outside of his snag ball but after a few moments of deliberation he came to the conclusion that most people were not even able to tell the difference between Lucario and a normal Lucario. Besides that bit of reasoning with himself, he felt as if it was an important part of the purification process. Twisting his body around on the spot so that he was facing north, the energetic teenage boy took for Professor Juniper's lab. He figured that while he was in town he might as well visit the professor of his home region and see if she ever noticed anything out of place or just downright odd.

Before he could even reach the halfway point to the lab, which was strange in of itself before the trail was short and the Pokemon Center was in the center of town, a red light flashed across his field of vision for just a moment. Was it the work of his strange new glasses? Whatever the reason for his strange new development in the vision department Alphonse didn't have much time to ponder it when a kid dressed in all black popped out from behind a tree. To be completely honest he was apt to completely ignore the boy if it wasn't for the Vulpix nipping at his heels. Instead of the usual light brown coloration of a typical Vulpix this one's fur was black and it's eyes glowed red. _So these glasses also tells me when there is a Shadow Pokemon nearby._

"Oi! What are you doing with that Shadow Pokemon?" Alphonse glared daggers at the boy in black who couldn't of been older than thirteen as he approached, "Are you one of Cipher's goons?" Dressed in black leather pants, red boots, a black shirt with short sleeves, and a black cap with a large red C on the front, the boy before himself had the look of a person from a criminal organization. If that wasn't bad enough a twisted smirk painted the boy's face which marred the perfect tan the boy had. Chuckling as if he had just won the lottery and was not a millionaire, the Cipher goon's hazel eyes seemed to gleam with excitement under the brim of his cap. _Is this sort of style in clothing going to be typical for one of these Cipher guys?_

"What's it to ya? I could ask you why you have that Shadow Lucario there."

"Simple. I snagged him from one of you crooks and I'm going to purify him," Alphonse, now glaring daggers at the Cipher creep, proclaimed with his hand hovering over his belt.

"A Snagger? Whatever. Take him down Vulpix!" the cipher goon cried with that twisted smirk still upon his lips.

Fingering Kai's pokeball as if he were about to send him out, Alphonse was interrupted by a forceful grab of the wrist from his Lucario. Nursing his wrist which was sure to leave a bruise due to his sensitive skin, Alphonse stared at his Lucario as if he had three heads. Did he really want to battle when he was at a type disadvantage? _If he wants to battle then who am I to stop him? Maybe battle experience might even help with purification._

"Vulpix, use Shadow Fire!"

"Lucario, use Shadow Combat!" Alphonse called out as the Vulpix opened it's jaws. Rushing past a blaze of black flames, Lucario dashed in front of the Vulpix with it's limbs surrounded with a black aura. The fox pokemon barely had any time to react before it's side was berated with a flurry of punches and kicks until a decisive punch sent the little fox pokemon flying into the trunk of a large oak tree. Spotting the perfect opportunity to snag the shadow vulpix, Alphonse tossed a single pokeball at the vulpix. Sucking the Vulpix in with a flash of red light, the snag ball rolled three times before giving off a resounding click which signified a successful capture. Picking up the snag ball gently, Alphonse grinned with pride as the Cipher goon turned on his heel and disappeared. _Are there anymore of these goons in town?_

Figuring that his PDA was able to give him that information, Alphonse checked the Shadow Monitor app to find out that no more Shadow Pokemon were in Nuvema Town and at least four were scattered around Route One. Making a mental note to check out Route One after visiting Professor Juniper, Alphonse clicked on another tab in the app randomly which told him information about the Shadow Pokemon he had already. The Vulpix was a female at level 10 knowing Shadow Fire and Shadow Rush with the ability Flash Fire while the Lucario was a male at level 20 knowing Shadow Rush and Shadow Combat with the ability Justified. It was always nice to find something useful on a device he had considered useless over the past few years.

Noticing a crowd gathering around the pristine glass doors of Professor Juniper's lab, Alphonse increased his pace in order to see what was going on. Upon closer inspection it appeared that all eight of the Gym Leaders were crowded around Professor Juniper and her assistant Bianca demanding to know what was going on. Unova was probably the only region with an unusual number of Gym Leader in his opinion. Most regions only had eight Gym Leaders as a rule of thumb but Unova had around thirteen if Lenora and Brycen, both of which were retired, but only eleven if they weren't counted. The stranger bit was that there was nine gyms in total with three new ones ran by Cheren, Roxie and Marlon. _Of course the Striaton Trio is going to retire soon from what I've heard. It still doesn't change the fact that finding all eleven of them in one spot is a strange sight._

"Professor Juniper? What's going on here?" Alphonse questioned as he spotted that familiar head of honey colored hair.

"Alphonse! What a surprise," the professor of the region of Unova stated in shock, "What happened to taking on the Indigo League?"

"That's... a long story," Alphonse, scratching the back of his head in thought, replied carefully, "Why are the Gym Leaders here?"

"They all say that they were kicked out of their Gyms by Trainers with abnormally strong Pokemon," piped in Bianca suddenly in a cheerful tone.

"How... abnormal?" Alphonse questioned warily.

"They all used strange moves called Shadow-"

"Shadow Pokemon..." Alphonse, interrupting Bianca, mused contemplatively.

"You know them?" this time it was Cheren who popped into the conversation seemingly interested in Alphonse's involvement in the matter.

"Yeah... I even have two of them snagged from an evil organization called Cipher," with statement all the jaws of the Gym Leader's seemed to just drop down to the ground as Alphonse recounted all that he knew about Cipher and Shadow Pokemon. With great clarity Alphonse began to explain how Cipher was an organization who closed pokemon's hearts artificially to use them as tools for battle and how they attempted their dastardly plot two times in the past and that the current attempt was their third uprising. Furthermore he discussed Shadow Pokemon specifically about how they were unable to grow in level or learn any moves and knew only Shadow Moves. Not only did he explain about how sometimes a Shadow Pokemon would enter an enraged state called Reverse mode but also about how they were wiped of all emotions and had no memories other than that they were tools to be used in battle. By the end of his speech he was sure that he heard multiple outcries of "That's horrible!" but he noticed that the only one who kept a straight face about all of this was Professor Juniper.

"I already knew about all of this an hour before all of you arrived," Professor Juniper admitted shocking the crowd of Gym Leaders, "Professor Oak called me not long ago about Cipher and Shadow Pokemon. He told me about how the Gym Leader's were booted out of their Gym's in Kanto and how a boy named Mark Hunter set out to stop Cipher."

"I'll get your Gyms back." Alphonse declared unable to sit by and let Cipher take over Unova.

"You sure? It sounds like too much responsibility for just one person al-"

"Well good thing he's not alone then ain't it?" came a loud voice which could have been mistaken for a guy's voice if the interrupter of their conversation didn't have a very feminine sense of fashion. _When did my twin get here? _Pushing his confusion aside for the moment, Alphonse studied the woman with facial features and a body frame similar to his own. Long and wavy emerald hair, which was a striking contrast to her less bold chocolate colored eyes, framed her small face and made the tan of her skin less noticeable. _With the way she acts you wouldn't think she had such a flair for fashion. _In fact the sixteen year old female was wearing a black and white checkered gothic lolita dress with matching gloves, stockings, shoes, and headdress. _How can Saria stand to wear such an outfit._

"What!? It's too dangerous-"

"Dangerous, Smangerous!" Saria, interrupting her brother before he could finish his sentence, shouted with a strange mix of concern and annoyance coloring her otherwise smooth tone, "I'm not lettin' you go alone. Mom and dad are dead... y-you're the only... p-person I have left... WHAT'LL HAPPEN TO ME IF YOU DIE!?"

For the first time in a long time since the car wreck five years back Alphonse saw his sister breakdown in tears of grief and anger. She had always been the strong one encouraging him to move forward. _I never thought that she depended on me so much._ Wrapping his arms around his sister's shoulders in a tight embrace, Alphonse could feel each sob which racked down her body attack his heart as if she were attacking his soul. In one way that was true because seeing her in pain was too much for the slightly younger twin to handle as he whispered softly into her ear before detaching his arms from her shoulders, "I'm sorry. Would you please accompany me in my quest?"

"Idiot, of course I will," Saria managed to choke out as she wiped the tears from her eyes with her clenched fists.

"Right, now that we've moved past this emotional display can you take the Gym Leaders back to their respective cities, Skyla? It'd be best for your chances of successful if the gym leaders assisted you two when you go to take back the Gyms," Professor Juniper announced in order to move things along, "I need to explain some things for our duo."

No one seemed to complain with that logic as the group of eleven comically climbed upon the back of Skyla's Swanna. _How in the world is that even possible?_ That Swanna realistically shouldn't even of been able to lift more than three people at a time but somehow that Swanna managed to soar through the crystal clear sky with ease and grace despite having a ridiculous number of people on it's back. Deciding to ignore the impossibility of the event he had just witnessed for his very own eyes out of a desire to preserve his own sanity, Alphonse wondered about what Professor Juniper could add to their pool of knowledge. Saria seemed to of least had similar thoughts as she shook her head, which resulted in her hair swinging wildly and obscuring her face briefly, as if to force confusion away from her mind.

"Follow me and Bianca inside," the professor called before she disappeared inside the lab with Bianca following at her heels.

"Ladies first?" Alphonse offered in an attempt to be peaceful.

"If you insist," Saria agreed before pushing her twin at the automatic sliding glass doors.

"...Are you trying to hint at something?" Alphonse questioned in his best "I am not amused." voice.

"Maybe~" Saria, following behind her twin, giggled at the glare she was given.

Needless to say, as it was expected in their opinions of a Pokemon Lab, Professor Juniper's lab was just as pristine as the glass doors. The only real variations from their opinion of what a Pokemon Lab is was actually the smell. Almost every Pokemon Lab he had been to in the past had smelled heavily of disinfectant and bleach so bad that usually he had a bad taste in his mouth by the end of the visit. Instead of disinfectant or bleach however, a warm scent drifted throughout the lab tempting their noses. If Alphonse didn't know any better then he would of assumed that she was inviting them for a bite to eat instead of giving them more information.

"Bianca, fetch those pokedexes Professor Oak sent over please," Professor Juniper requested as she searched through cluttered papers and documents.

"Already got them." Bianca chirped with two Unovan styled pokedexes in hand only they were pitch black before handing them over to Professor Juniper.

"Thanks," Professor Juniper smiled warmly before distributing the two pokedexes between the twins, "These will record any data on Cipher or Shadow Pokemon you come across and send the results directly to my PC. Speaking of PCs, Shadow Pokemon can't be sent to PCs for some unknown reason."

"Wait, Professor. How am I gonna tell a Shadow Pokemon apart from a normal Pokemon?" Saria, realizing a flaw in their plan to take Cipher down, questioned nervously. It wasn't like she had some special powers or a gift from a legendary to aid her in her endeavors. Was Alphonse the only person capable of seeing Shadow Pokemon for what they actually were? _I just hope he doesn't try to flirt with all our enemies._ By all she actually meant all as well. If it wasn't obvious she suspected her brother of being gay or at least Bi but had never brought the matter up to him.

"If I had to take a guess then whatever helps Alphonse, and I assume it's the glasses, see Shadow Pokemon should help you in close proximity with your brother." Bianca chimed in an attempt to be helpful though she wasn't sure if that was of any help whatsoever.

"Worth a shot at least. Go, Vulpix," Alphonse exclaimed as Vulpix appeared in a flash of white.

Saria couldn't help but stare at the Vulpix in confusion. It didn't appear to be any different from a regular Pokemon but something had to of changed right? It took awhile of real concentration before something inside her flashed like someone had just turned on the lights inside of her and suddenly the cute Vulpix appeared menacing in a way. It still had the regular shape and form of a Vulpix but the black fur and the glowing red eyes were just off putting though. That was even without mentioning her gray paws which suddenly had razor sharp claws as if they were always there. _If I _concentrated_ in reverse would I see a normal Vulpix?_ No matter how much she tried however she was unable to unsee the Shadow Vulpix.

"I see it." Saria stammered in disbelief as her twin recalled the fox pokemon.

"We should get going soon." Alphonse, scratching the back of Aura's head, called snapping Saria out of her daze.

After a few more minutes the duo left the lab and left for Route One ready for the start of a new adventure.

**A/N: Well here's the second chapter folks. I hope it doesn't look too similar to animatedrose's story because I'm not trying to copy her work. What is wrong with me making a Gothic Lolita girl a tomboy? Genius? Insanity? Who knows. Don't forget to submit an OC if you want a character to appear in the story.**


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